Most businesses have become aware of the strategic and economic advantages of desktop virtualization. Now, desktop virtualization market leader VMware is taking the concept further through the introduction of a new computing paradigm known as mobile virtualization. As technologies go, this one is brand new, having been introduced by VMware just this past October at the VMworld Europe conference. The service is called Horizon Mobile and it uses a mobile virtualization platform developed by VMware in order to create a sort of “virtual machine” on an Android phone.

This means that the virtualized phone actually possess two different environments. One can be used for personal interactions so that the other one can be reserved exclusively for business use. VMware’s management program, the Horizon Mobile Manager, can then be used to administer the business environment on the phone. It is able to secure apps from intrusions as well as deploy them in the first place and manage them afterwards.

At this time, VMware’s mobile virtualization platform works on Android devices. Since these are so ubiquitous, businesses will be able to incorporate Horizon as part of a managed programs suite of IT solutions. With Horizon Mobile Manager, businesses will finally be able to reach a happy medium when it comes to workers’ cell phones. Because they can now be virtually partitioned, IT staff will be able to protect the security of the business network, even when such phones are able to communicate wirelessly with it. Another benefit is that employees may feel more secure now that their personal data is virtually “firewalled” away from the business use of their phones.